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Professor Howard Morphy, Director Research School of the Humanities: Mediating Forms: The Spiritual and Personal Dimension of Yolngu
Portraiture
Professor Morphy argues that the presence of a person and attributes of a person’s ‘biography’ are two relatively autonomous components of portraiture. He develops a comparative argument, considering commonalities between different artistic practices including conventional Western portraiture based on likeness, abstract expressionism, North West Coast Native American art and Indigenous Australian art. This broader perspective reveals commonalities across cultures that deepen understanding of portraiture as a process for mediating identity.